UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stressed on Tuesday the importance of volunteers in helping achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are eight goals that member states have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015.

In a message marking International Volunteer Day, Annan honored the millions of volunteers whose "ethos makes volunteerism one of the most visible, and most welcome, attributes of global citizenship."

"In ways both big and small, volunteers are transforming their communities and our world," he said. "And in this era of growing problems without passports, from HIV/AIDS to trafficking in people and contraband, they are providing grass-roots solutions to humanity's most pressing needs."

No such need is more urgent than attaining the MDGs on schedule, the secretary-general said.

"Our world has the wealth and the vision to make poverty history, to end hunger, and to bring about development for all. Yet, progress has proved uneven both within and between countries, " he said.

"Volunteer efforts can help fill the gap between declarations and delivery, and supplement broader national and international efforts to achieve the goals," he stressed.

The UN General Assembly created the UN's own volunteer program (UNV) in 1970 to serve as an operational partner in development cooperation at the request of UN member states.

In 2005, its eighth consecutive year of growth, UNV mobilized some 8,400 volunteers, representing 168 nationalities, who served in 144 countries. Since 1971, more than 30,000 UN volunteers have supported humanitarian efforts.

International Volunteer Day, which falls on Dec. 5, was adopted through a resolution by the General Assembly in 1985. On this day, millions of supporters of volunteerism engage in various initiatives at local, national and international levels.

Source: Xinhua